Back in 2012 I was thrilled to have two stories included in Stations, and five years later I’m delighted to be taking part in the anniversary celebrations.

Another of my writing adventures which saw the light of day five years ago was the New Hartley Memorial Pathway. This was a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of a terrible pit disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 204 men and boys. It also led to legislation, which went some way to prevent such a tragedy happening again.

I visited the pathway recently and it was looking splendid in the August sun, and I couldn’t help feeling a sense of pride. This is something I haven’t necessarily felt in the same way with everything I’ve written or had published in the intervening five years. I’ve heard from others over the years that the local community are proud of the pathway and the memorial garden which is its home.

To write my stories for Stations I did what I do every day – sit at the desk in my study writing notes, scraps, lines and thoughts and seeing where they take me.

The New Hartley experience was a huge contrast in that I was collaborating with (a) Russ Coleman, a friend and public artist, (b) the lovely people who commissioned the project and (c) members of the local community, whose ideas and words were incorporated into the text.

When I first wrote about the project, I referred to myself as the writer, but I started to feel uncomfortable with this as things were much more nuanced. I was using words from contemporary accounts, newspapers, official reports and the input – including actual words and phrases – from local schoolchildren and other community groups. I decided to refer to myself as collating the text, and felt better for it. I think this possibly downplays my creative role in some ways, but I’d rather that than take credit for something which wasn’t entirely my own doing – and I don’t like to blow my own trumpet.

*A new experience for me, matching sound files to video – the aircon (or something) at the Brockley Deli interfered with the sound on the video so I had to use the recordings from my audio machine. Something of a challenge getting them in sync!

Join us for a story set in a cheese shop, Cranberry Sauce as an excuse for an illicit meeting, trying to win friends with cookies and taking tea with a demon, plus poems about oranges and bay leaves! Order appropriate food to ‘taste-along’. Mostly read by our actor friends Peter Noble & Gloria Sanders.

Arachne are going North once more, this time to Cullercoats close to Newcastle, but it’s seaside again. We aren’t performing this time, just taking part in the Inpress Bookfair on Saturday 6th June at the Eclectic Iron festival. Come along and say hello, and buy a book or three, we always have special deals when we sell face to face.

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It looks a lot of fun, and there’s plenty of music too, so I’m hoping we’ll have time to take part in some of the events as audience – we’ve booked tickets for the Limerick session (Arachne author Rob Walton, who is also published by Iron Press, the founders of the feast, is reading at that) and the Anne Cleeves talk, the rest we’ll take on as the mood takes us.

The Story Sessions are back – for a guest spot, maybe for good, depending… We are doing three events for BrockleyMAX. The first two are both on Saturday 30th May The Ladywell Gallery, (what used to be Misty Moon) behind The Ladywell Tavern 80 Ladywell Road SE13 7HS

Writing Workshop – Festival

5pm – 7pm Free; accompanied children over 10 welcome

Arachne Press presents a writing workshop on the theme of Festival. Get inspiration from the exhibition of photographs from previous BrockleyMAX festivals and write a new short story or poem, with the option to read it at The Story Sessions event in the evening.

Join us for a story set in a cheese shop, Cranberry Sauce as an excuse for an illicit meeting, trying to win friends with cookies and taking tea with a demon, plus poems about oranges and bay leaves! Order appropriate food to ‘taste-along’.

Unique Bespoke Festive Flash

£100 or more for print version 1 available from each participating author

£75 or more for electronic version 1 available from each participating author

A number of our authors have volunteered to write 100 word flash fiction especially for you (so far, Rob Walton, Mi HollidayBernie Howley and Wendy Gill – others may follow). So you, or a friend/family member/ favourite cat/place will feature (depending on what details you provide. These will be UNIQUE pieces, they will never be published and it’s not just a case of changing the name. The story will be typeset and printed, sent to you as a festive card (please state your prefered festival, and which writer you would prefer – they are only doing one each) Includes cost of postage, or alternatively for the lower price, we can send you a pdf to print yourself.

Part of the principles on which Arachne Press is founded is to support our authors work for other publishers, or any other weird and wonderful activities they get up to.

in the spirit of which, a round-up of news.

Michelle Shine has just published her first novel, Mesmerised, which is about the Impressionists and homeopathy. I’ve just finished reading it and it is extraordinary – very convincing on period detail and the flavour of the world she is writing about, and occasionally startling. Michelle has a ‘trailer’ for the book which you can view on YouTube.

Jason Jackson‘s most recent publication was a story called ‘Change, Rest’ in the July issue of synaesthesia magazine online. he has an upcoming publication: a story called ‘Queuing, Photographs,. Morning Eyes’ in the December issue of smokelong quarterly and he’s part way through nanowrimo.

Lennart Lunh likewise: Short stories — “Nighthawks” (yes, after the Hopper work) was taken by Pages & Spine
“Paris Street; Rainy Day” (Len’s favorite of all paintings) will be in the Fall 2013 issue of Lewis University’s online journal, The Jet Fuel Review, releasing 21 November.
Poetry — Work saw light in The Chaffey Review and The Binnacle over the summer. Chatter House took three pieces for a November anthology, Ffjords one as a video reading, and a small boatload of other poems have accepted by Writing Knights Press for several of their anthologies over the next six months.
Len is reading at Lewis’ fall open mic on November 15. Traveling to Cleveland November 23 for an evening reading with Writing Knights Press.

Tania Hershman has begun a PhD in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, exploring the intersection between fiction and particle physics.
She read at the Word Factory ghost stories night on Nov 8th in a cemetery! Also, She will be the judge of the 2014 Bridport Prize for flash fiction and a 2014 Gladstone LIbrary Writer-in-residence.

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